Chapter 6

Anastasia's POV

"Okay kids, are you sure you have everything you need?" Mrs. Diggory asked Ced and I for what seemed like the tenth time in the five minutes we have been saying goodbye before we boarded the Hogwarts Express.

"Yes, mum." Ced retorted with a smile on his face.

"Yes, Mrs. Diggory." I said with a nod and a smile equaling Cedric's.

"Anastasia, dear, what did we discussed?"she said as she looked down at me and held my shoulders tenderly. "That you can call me mum or Eugenia if you want. Okay, sweetheart? You might as well be my daughter, there needs to be a balance in the ratio of women to men in the house. Now, write to me as much as you want. You too Cedric."

She said as she released me from a hug.

"Sure mum."

"Okay,"she whispered as she looked at us. "You guys grow up so fast. Okay, group hug." As she motioned for us to move into her embrace Mr. Diggory finally arrived.

"Eugenia, calm down. You'll see the kids again at Christmas. So you should really stop hugging the life out of them if you want to see them there." Mr. Diggory said as he put an arm around his wife.

"Son, you go to to Hogwarts and be the best Hufflepuff there is, okay?" Then he turned to me and said, "You too Anastasia. You go and be the bravest Gryffindor there is, okay?"

A few kisses and hugs later we were on the train waving goodbye at the Diggorys from an opened window.

As the train started moving and we were losing sight of the couple, we went back in and started to look for a compartment we could spend the journey in.

"Gosh, I love you parents." I said I as we walked down the aisle.

"Well, good thing they love you too." He responded with a glance back at me and a smile.

"I'm glad. Hey, I just saw a flash of red hair enter that compartment, it's probably Fred and George. Lets go sit in there!" I said as I took his hand and took off running in the direction of the compartment.

"Fred! Geog...hey, you're not Fred or George," I exclaimed as I entered the compartment to see a scared redheaded boy and a small boy with dark hair and glasses both looking up at me. "Huh? Hmmm...you look like the twins, you have the same hair color as them, are you their little brother?" I said as I zoomed in on his face.

"Uh...yes." He said with a sidelong glance at the other boy.

"Then you're Ron, mystery solved." I said as I moved some steps back from him. "Oh! I almost forgot, I'm Anastasia Romanov, nice to meet you." I said as I offered my hand to the youngest Weasley boy. "And that's Cedric Diggory." I motioned to Ced behind me.

"Anastasia Romanov. Nice to meet you." I repeated for the other boy.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter. It's nice to meet you as well." He said as he shook my hand.

"Well, Harry, Harry Potter and baby Weasley, may we share your compartment, please? There's no empty compartments and we couldn't find your brothers. They're probably scheming away some pranks with Lee right now."

"Yeah sure."

"Thanks." I said as I sat down.

In a couple of minutes Ced and Ron were talking about quidditch and the newest broom in the market and I couldn't help but notice how little Harry contributed to the conversation.

"Do you not like quidditch?" I enquired as I sat down next to him.

"No, it's that I've never played it before."

"Well, I can teach you how to play it if you would like."

"Thanks, I'd love that."

"Here, give me your glasses." As I waved my wand over his glasses the brake disappeared along with the tape.

"How did you do that?"

"Magic." I responded simply with a wave of my hands over my face.

"Thank you Anastasia." He said as he chuckled.

"No problem, you remind me of my little brother so it's okay." I said as I remembered Alexei.

"How old is he?"

"He's three years younger than me."

"Will he come to Hogwarts?"

"No, let's just say that war took his opportunity away." I said as I bowed my head.

"I'm sorry, my parents were killed when I was a baby." He said as he was trying to comfort me.

"Yeah, that happened to my family also, it was a couple of years ago. War always destroys families." I didn't notice that by the end we were whispering to each other and he was holding my hand.

I saw Cedric giving me a concerned look and mouthed if I was okay which to I responded with a nod and a small smile. Ron didn't even notice as he was telling Cedric about something related to quidditch or whatnot.

As soon as I turned back to Harry, a girl with Alexandr in her arms entered the compartment.

"Is an Anastasia in here? Her griffin was running around and some third years told me he belonged to a girl named Anastasia."

"That would be me." I said as I lifted my right hand in the air.

"You? You...look..." She started whispering words under her breath and she was looking at me with surprised eyes. "It can't be...dead." Was the last thing she muttered as she fainted.

"Cedric! Catch her!"

This year was certainly starting on an interesting note.

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Cedric's POV

"Cedric! Catch her!" Anastasia said before the girl fell. I stood up as fast as I could and got there on time for the girl to fall in my arms. As she fainted she had dropped Alexandr who squeaked at her in protest before he settled himself on the seat next to the window.

"Lay her down on the seat, okay, does anybody have candy? Chocolate? Anything?" Anastasia said as she started to take over the situation as she always did.

"Ron, Harry, go find the food trolley and get anything with chocolate, uh...and some blood-flavored lollipops, okay?" She said as she handed them money. "If you hurry you can buy yourselves anything you want with the rest of the money, okay? Go! Hurry!"

"Why do you think she fainted?" I asked Anastasia who was holding the girl's hand.

"I'm not sure, I have an idea, but we won't know until she wakes up."

"She'll be fine." I said as I kneeled down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"I know. It's just horrible that somebody passes out after they see your face." She said with a shake of her head.

"I know, you're not even that ugly." I said with the most serious tone I could muster.

"Hey! I'm not ugly! If anyone's ugly in this compartment it's you!" She said with an indignant tone as she shoved me off of her.

"I'm just kidding, Anastasia. You're beautiful." I said as I put my arms around her again and gave her a kiss on the head.

"Kiss up." I heard her say under her breath with a shake of her head but I also felt her relax in my arms.

A couple of seconds later the boys reentered the compartment with their arms filled with candy.

"Good, Ron, give me the blood-flavored lollipops." Anastasia said as she stood up.

"Sure." The boy said as he unceremoniously dumped all the candy on the seat.

"Good, also give me some chocolate."

When she had both things in her hands, she kneeled again and unwrapped the lollipop and carefully placed it over the girls tongue.

The girl woke with a jump and a grimace and Anastasia gently took the lollipop out of her mouth.

"Are you okay?" She asked the girl.

"That was disgusting." The girl said.

"Yeah, sorry, we didn't know how to wake you up. Here, have some chocolate. Don't move too fast, okay? Don't stand up until you feel okay again. Cedric, please help me move her to a sitting position."

As we moved her to a sitting position, the girl started apologizing for fainting.

"It's okay, it happens to everybody when they see her face." I motioned to Anastasia's face, who had a frown on it.

"Ha and ha. You're so funny. Who taught you your sense of humor? Eddie? I'm going to tell him he's a horrible teacher." Anastasia's focus went back to the girl who was eating chocolate and watching our conversation like a very interesting match of quidditch.

"What's your name?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Nice to meet you, Hermione. I'm Anastasia Romanov, this goof is Cedric Diggory, the redhead is Ron Weasley and that's Harry Potter."

"You're Anastasia Romanov?! And you're Harry Potter?!" She exclaimed. I could see Anastasia glance back at Harry before both said yes.

"How are you still alive? It's not possible, you were born in 1901. You're Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, I've read books about you and your family. It was rumored that you lived but that was decades ago."

Hermione would have probably kept talking nonsense if Anastasia hasn't interrupted her.

"It's not impossible? Think Hermione, how can it not be possible when you're right now sitting on a train to a school that teaches witchcraft and wizardry? I know it's not common but still. Okay?" As if she knew I was confused out of my mind, she turned around and told me she would tell me later.

As curious as I was, I knew pushing her would only make her close up so I only nodded in response.

"Okay, we're probably almost there, so you three go and change. You've had too much excitement for one day and you still have the Sorting to go through. So go and change into your uniform."

"I remember where I heard your name now!" Ron exclaimed out of nowhere as he was leaving the compartment. "You're the girl that entered the Great Hall through the window on her griffin in last year's Sorting!" I smiled thinking over the situation that cultivated my friendship with Anastasia.

"You did what?!" Hermione asked wide eyed.

"Wow, cool." Harry mentioned with a smile.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you guys later what happened." She said with a resigned air.

As they left, I turned to Anastasia. "You know they're not your kids, right?" As I said this, I grabbed her hand and pulled her next to me on the seat.

"Yeah." She said into my chest.

"I'm trying out for the quidditch team." I said suddenly.

"You are? That's great. Now I have a legitimate reason for going to the matches for other than ogling cute older guys."

I just stared at her until her resistance broke down.

"Kidding, I was kidding. I only ogle one guy," I smiled at this, thinking she was going to say me. "Oliver Wood. Pardon me, Captain Oliver Wood. It sounds so official. He's so dreamy." She said with a sigh.

"I could be captain if I wanted." I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.

"Yes but Oliver is majestic on his broom." Another sigh.

"Okay, stop the fan girl nonsense." I said with an authoritative tone.

"Fine, I'll just stare at him during dinner, I could probably even sit beside him. Yes, that's perfect."

"Okay, I'm leaving." I said as I stood up.

I stopped when I felt a hand holding gently onto my wrist.

"Okay, I'm done."

"Are you sure? I could probably go tell him to come see you right now if you want."

I lied. No I wouldn't.

"No, I'm okay. I could even tell you who's my favorite quidditch player this year."

"Who is it?"

She's probably going to say Wood.

"You." I sat down when she said this.

"You haven't even seen me play and I'm not even in the team."

"But you will be and then you'll be my favorite quidditch player ever. You're already my favorite person in the world so it won't take much too make you my favorite player."

"I'm your favorite person in the world?" I felt a smile growing on my lips.

Ha! Take that Wood.

"Of course. What? Am I not your favorite person?" She said with a worried tone.

"Silly girl, of course you are." I said as I pulled her in for a hug.

"Good. We should probably go change."

"Let's go." As said as I hauled her off the seat.

This year has had a great start, I just hope that it will last.

CDxAR CDxAR CDxAR

Anastasia's POV

As we were ready to descend the train, I turned to the trio.

"Good luck in your sorting, hopefully you get into the house that you want."

"What house are you in, Anastasia?" Harry asked.

"The best one," I whispered clandestinely, "Gryffindor. Just remember that all houses are great, no matter what others say, okay? I'll still talk to you guys, no matter what house you're in."

As we descended into the chaos that was the station, Cedric and I waved goodbye at the three as we went to the carriage that would take us to Hogwarts.

"Cedric?" I asked suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Why does Harry's name sound so familiar?" I said as I looked up at him. He had grown over the summer and was now towering over me like a giant.

"That's because he's the boy who lived. Remember the story I told you over the summer? He's that kid." He said with a chuckle and a shake of his head at me for forgetting.

Oh crap.

AN: Hope you liked the time skip. Please review if you have any comments or suggestions.